As CPB Nears Shutdown, Leaders Say Public Media Is ‘Not Going Away.’

As the Corporation for Public Broadcasting moves toward formally closing its doors in the coming days, CPB leaders say its core mission remains intact. “Even as we close this chapter for CPB, public media will not go away,” Board Chair Ruby Calvert said Tuesday at the organization’s January board meeting. Earlier this month, the board voted to dissolve the 58-year-old organization after Congress voted last July to rescind $1.1 billion in previously approved funding — fulfilling a Project 2025 objective.

“We have a very strong and committed station community and our other public media partners, which include PBS, NPR and independent producers, they will continue their service, perhaps in newly structured versions, but we’re not going away,” Calvert said. “I have to believe there will be ongoing conversations about the future of public media and our legacy and its values will remain a part, I believe, of our national dialogue.”

Calvert emphasized that the decision to dissolve CPB “was made for all the right reasons,” and the organization is now “in the final stages of distributing CPB remaining funds, settling its obligations, and preparing to close its doors in the next few weeks. “We must also still find pride in our legacy and our decisions,” Calvert said, adding that CPB’s impact on public broadcasting and local communities has been “profound.”

A primary objective for CPB in the coming days will be processing its final round of financial support, with several grants expected to be announced. That includes a $2.9 million grant to American Public Television aimed at helping stations bring locally produced programming to national audiences. At a time when stations face “extraordinary financial pressure,” Calvert said the investment reflects CPB’s belief that “local storytelling is at the heart of public media’s value to the American people and deserves our investment.”

Other grants will include operational support to stations serving remote communities, while others will help all stations strengthen digital services to help local stations collaborate across the system. Another grant will ensure its work is protected and archived for future generations.

“CPB will also be looking at ways to restore and improve what the American people have valued for generations — a vital, dynamic public media system for our country,” CPB President/CEO Patricia Harrison said. “Yes, we are closing down, but we are not disengaging individually. And we know that success will depend on local and national collaboration.”

Referencing the broader political and funding challenges facing public media, Harrison said she is “very proud” of the way that CPB staff has rallied and put the system first. She framed 2026 — the nation’s 250th anniversary — as a moment to rethink public media’s role in civic life, calling it “a year to shape public media for the future as an integral part of a revitalized democracy.”

What may give some working in public media hope is there are whispers that the debate over federal dollars going to local stations may not yet be over. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Communications Daily earlier this month that he is pushing them to make good on a promise to him last summer that they would restore some funding for rural stations like those in his home state of Nebraska. Bacon said he hasn’t run into any objections from House budget-writers about adding the money back into the federal budget.